What Would Jimmy Do?

Well, it’s finally here — Election Day. You’ve survived over a year of election “talk” and you’re probably as fed up with it all as most of us, but it’s time for you to vote. And vote you must!
Vote for whoever you choose, but vote. Voting is not only a right, it’s a duty. You shouldn’t need a reason to vote, but here’s some in case you think you shouldn’t….

– It’s not just the President on the ballot. Local officials often make decisions that more directly affect you than those at the national level
– Voting is a right generations of Americans fought and struggled to win — and people in other countries are still fighting for.
– Vote so you can complain — if you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain
– If you don’t vote, someone else will — do you really want someone else deciding what’s best for you?
– Sounds trite, but every vote counts.
– And don’t forget — if you vote, you get a free sticker!
Vote with your head, or with your heart, but vote….
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Our granddaughter, Emily, has been “fashion” conscious just about since she was born. She couldn’t have been more than six months old when she began to pick out her own diaper. When we kept her, she would throw a fit if Claire picked up a Cookie Monster diaper and she wanted a Mickey Mouse one. To this day she pretty much picks out her own clothes every day.

She has definite ideas and knows what she likes. I’m sure her mom and probably her teachers cringe some days when her wardrobe is especially outlandish. I’m not one to give advice, and this isn’t advice, just an opinion — but I think letting her make her own choices is good. Within the boundaries of cost and age-appropriateness, I think Emily should be able to dress as she pleases.

The fact is, when raising kids, a lot of the messages we give to them involve “don’t,” “no,” or “stop.” There’s going to be enough of these messages in Emily’s life — I think saying yes to fashion choices is nice.
There’s going to be a lot of years of disagreements and arguments now that Emily is school age. Some arguments are worth having, and other issues are worth letting slide. Choose your battles — this is probably never truer than when we become parents. Anyone who is one knows you have to choose your battles a lot — on issues you can’t even imagine. If the issue or confrontation involves safety, it’s non-negotiable — the rest is just another lesson in patience….
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I’ve been asked several times lately (we have really in-depth, stimulating conversations after golf) if there was something I never did but wish I had or if I’d like to change things I’ve done, or regret things… anyhow you get the idea.

There have been times that I might have listed my regrets and “should haves.” But I don’t wish that I had or hadn’t done any of the things I did because that’s what makes me who I am. I’ve certainly made plenty of bad mistakes and wrong decisions, but that’s called experience. If I hadn’t done those things I wouldn’t have learned from them.

I like my life right now — it’s not perfect, but it never will be. That’s not what life is all about. So no regrets for me — only gratitude for what those lessons taught me.

Well, ok, I suppose I do have one regret… I wish I’d bought 100 shares of Apple stock instead of all those iPhones, iPads, etc.
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You may remember a few days ago I mentioned that we had a special bottle of wine for the World Series. When we received it, I said, “if the Indians win the World Series, we’re gonna open this bottle. If the Indians lose the World Series, we’re gonna open this bottle.”

Well, the bottle is open (and empty, I might add.) I won’t dwell on the World Series except to say that I’m not a huge baseball fan, but I watched every minute of all seven games… It would have been nice to have another championship in Cleveland, but neither team has anything to be ashamed of…

And I hope I get another bottle of that wine for next year — I’m pretty sure the World Series will be played in Cleveland again.
I did a little bit of extensive research and learned that from 1969 until 1989, the Indians finished in last place or second-to-last place in 16 of those 21 seasons. In the other five seasons, they finished third-to-last. But — from 1994 until today, they’ve mad the playoffs nine times and came within an out of winning the World Series twice. Even though I liked the old stadium, the suffering doesn’t seem quite as bad in the new one.

So the curse or streak has ended for the Cubs — the new owner is now the Indians — that one ends in 2017.
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When I was about six years old, we got something new in our house. This amazing device allowed you to talk to people in other places — it was called a telephone. I mean, it was really called a telephone. If you were lucky enough to have one, you didn’t tell people you got a phone, you told them you got a telephone. You almost never hear the word telephone used anymore… there’s phone, cell phone, mobile phone, etc., but the word telephone is seldom used.

I got to wondering when telephone got shortened to just “phone.” After conducting my extensive research on the subject, I noticed that in older publications, the word telephone was shortened to ‘phone — the apostrophe used to mark where the beginning of the word had been omitted. Over some amount of time, someone obviously decided that phone (without the apostrophe) was its own word.

When I was a kid, we used words like telephone call, telephone line, telephone pole and telephone book. Today, if those things are mentioned at all, they’re phone call, phone line, phone book, etc. — the “tele” part seems to have just gone away. Of course, a lot of other abbreviations have become their own word in their own right, for example, facsimile spurned fax, microphone was shortened to mic and, especially in England, television is referred to as telly. Shortening seems fairly common, but it appears to be more common at the front of words than at the back.

Anyhow, I couldn’t determine exactly when the transition from telephone to ‘phone to just phone happened. I suspect that some people just started using the shortened version of telephone and it caught on and as for the apostrophe, the presence or absence of it in speech is meaningless anyway.
But I’m kind of happy that phone seems to have prevailed — can you imagine E.T. wanting to telephone home instead of just phone home? And how would you like to tote around an iTelephone instead of an iPhone?
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A couple of weeks ago, we were invited to Emily’s school for Grandparents Day. We obviously had a great time and are looking forward to it next year. I got to thinking about how everybody seem to have a “day,” and it occurred to me that if not for West Virginia, we grandparents might not have our day. Grandparents Day was “founded” by Marian McQuade of Oak Hills, West Virginia in 1973. I might also mention that Mothers Day was also “founded” in West Virginia.

When our friends learned we were moving to West Virginia, they all thought we were moving to the “wrong side of the tracks.”
There’s an old joke that the first toothbrush was invented in West Virginia because if it had been invented anywhere else, it would have been called a teethbrush. But the fact is, that West Virginia, like most places, is unique in its own way and lays claim to a number of “firsts.” Berkley Springs, just up the road from our house boasts the country’s first spa that was open to the public. And outdoor advertising more or less got its start when Mail Pouch tobacco ads were painted on barnes in Wheeling, West Virginia. One of the first publications for women, The Ladies’ Garland newspaper was published in Harper Ferry in 1824. The first routes for Rural Free Delivery (RFD) started in Jefferson County — the county we live in. Prior to RFD, people living in the country traveled to cities to get their mail, or paid someone for delivery.
One very important contribution to society from West Virginia is the Pepperoni Roll. It was invented by an Italian, Giuseppe Arigiro, who came to work in the mines in Clarksburg in 1920.
The first steamboat was launched by James Rumsey in the Potomac River here in Shepherdstown in 1787 — the town was named New Mecklensburg at that time.
The stone used for the Washington Monument was stone that was quarried near Hinton, WV.
West Virginia is considered the southernmost northern state and the northern most southern state, and add to that it is the only state to get its sovereignty by proclamation of the President of the United States.
So West Virginia may not be “almost Heaven” but it’s certainly not the “wrong side of the tracks.”
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I’m not a huge (professional) baseball fan… Ever since the major league strike prevented the World Series from being played a number of years ago, I’ve been “down” on the major leagues. Of course, this year is different. Faithful readers of this blog will remember that the Cleveland Indians have been my favorite team since I was about 7 or 8 years old. If you care about why a kid from Oklahoma would choose the Cleveland Indians, you can search the archives of this blog to find the answer.

So my favorite team and not my favorite team, but one that I still wish well, the Chicago Cubs are taking the field tonight in Cleveland. The Cubs haven’t won a World Series since 1908. The Indians have not won a World Series since 1948. (I remember the Indians win, I don’t remember the Cubs win.) Someone has to win — either the Cubs will win their first championship since 1908 or the Indians will win their first championship since 1948. There is no tie — it’s the only possible outcome.

The last time either team won a World Series people that have recently become eligible for Social Security weren’t even born! We could go on and on about things we have today that didn’t even exist the last time either team won the series, but I guess the point is, it’s been a really long time.

The Cubs last appeared in a World Series in 1945, but they lost to the Tigers in seven games. Supposedly a local bar owner brought a goat inside the ballpark and created The Curse of the Billy Goat that has haunted the Cubs since, starting with them losing the 1945 World Series. The Indians World Series victory drought is the second-longest in baseball, but at least it’s 40 years shorter than the longest — held by the Cubs. Combined, they have a championship drought of over 150 years.

So one of them will win — but — there’ll be a loser, too — that’s how it works. So one of these cities will have to continue to contend with some magic force working to keep them suffering.
One city on Lake Michigan and one on Lake Erie, playing for all the marbles. How can a series played on two Great Lakes not be a great series?
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Last weekend while we were in Cleveland, John and Chris give us a bottle of wine. What makes this bottle unique is the label. It’s a Cleveland Indians label – their “club series.” To quote from the label, “In 1901, when the Indians franchise began in Cleveland, it set the tone for a team that embodies the hardworking, down-to-earth spirit of the city. Over a century later, with two World Series titles and five AL pennants, the Indians are proud to release this California Red Blend with notes of chocolate, roasted coffee bean and vanilla spice.”

So now that we know what the players do in the off-season, we can all sit back and enjoy another World Series title. And best of all, this year we’ll be celebrating with this special bottle of wine. The bottle gets opened when the Indians win the series — and if for some unfathomable reason they lose, the bottle gets opened…. Here’s to the second major championship for Cleveland this year.
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Well, here I go again… I told myself that i wouldn’t mention politics or the election any more until at least mid-November. But… I watched the third debate last night, still of the opinion that it’s my civic duty to learn as much as possible about both candidates before I vote.
I honestly can’t say I learned anything new about either side, but I was a little disturbed that one candidate indicated that he might possibly not accept the outcome of the election based on the popular vote. I’ve heard the “this election’s rigged” banter for a while now, but trying to be generous, was willing to chalk it up to “campaigning.”

I’m certainly not an expert on the electoral system, but I don’t consider myself stupid, either. From what I know, I think it would be very difficult to “rig” a national election. I do not think any of the voting machines are connected to the Internet, or even to each other and machines and the voting process is under the control of various states and counties. It would seem to me that it would take a conspiracy of tremendous magnitude to affect the election.
I guess I do think it’s possible to mess with voter registration because one can register to vote via the Internet. But even if those data bases are “hacked,” I’m pretty sure there back-up procedures in place to prevent wide-scale voter fraud. I know that if you show up at the polls and for some reason your name is not on the registered list, you can still produce a voter registration card and vote and if worse comes to worse, you can vote a provisional ballot until the issue is resolved.

So I’m not terribly concerned about election fraud, I’m more concerned that someone may try to influence public opinion of a system that’s worked pretty well for 250 years or so.
Go vote — trust me, it’ll count!!
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We took a trip to the North Coast, sometimes known as Cleveland, over the weekend. Been a while since we were there, so it was good to see a lot of people again.
We spent some time with Bobbie the Nun at Chardon and got a tour of pretty much the entire facility. By the time we left we knew how many laundry rooms, TV rooms, computer rooms, utility rooms and lounges were there and we met a lot of nuns — especially Slovak ones. And of course Bobbie sent presents home with us for everyone.
We also had a good visit with Margie and got to see her current residence. The place seems really nice and she appears to enjoy all the activities and the people there. And on top of all that, the food is good.
On Saturday night we went to dinner with a large part of the family — I don’t know what percentage of the family attended because no one really knows how big the family actually is. But we had a really good time and the Indians won a couple of games while we were there on their way to a sweep of the Blue Jays. No rain on the way there — or — on the way home… leaves were colorful…. traffic was reasonably light… what more could you ask for? Well, maybe a Browns victory?
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